It’s a conundrum. Many industries depend on fossil fuels. Yet an over-reliance on fossil fuels is irreparably harming other industries – including fishing.

“The Earth’s oceans may be acidifying faster than at any point during the last 300 million years due to industrial emissions, endangering marine life from oysters and reefs to sea-going salmon,” according to Columbia University researchers, as reported by Alex Morales for Bloomberg News.

Mass acidification has been linked to mass extinctions in the past.

The ocean is a sheltering bubble for sea life just as the atmosphere is a bubble for those of us who depend on air to breathe. At some point, the inhabitants of a burning home just can’t take too smoke. They must run outside or succumb. Unfortunately, ocean life has no escape.

We could lose coral reefs, oysters and many other species.

Morales reports that researchers based in the US, UK, Netherlands, Germany and Spain contributed to the study, which was funded by the US National Science Foundation.